Numbers 35
by Pastor David Groendyk

Israel hasn’t even entered Canaan yet, and God is already divvying up the land! What confidence and assurance in God the people of Israel should’ve had in their Lord. The Promised Land was going to be divided up and apportioned to each tribe, except for Levi. Because the tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe, they were not given a full section of land like the rest but rather given certain cities among the rest of the tribes. The Lord himself was the inheritance of the Levites (Deut. 18:1–2), which meant that they were chosen to oversee the worship of God and they were provided for through the tithes and offerings to God from the rest of the nation.

As Christians, we have a similar inheritance to the Levites. Our inheritance and reward that we receive from God is not anything on earth but rather one that looks forward to the life to come. Just as Abraham left his home country looking forward to the city whose designer and builder was God and desired the better, heavenly country (Heb. 11:8–16), so we look forward to the day when we dwell with God forever in heaven. Similarly, Paul says that every Christian’s citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Our citizenship and inheritance is not an earthly one. God himself is our promised inheritance. That’s the great promise of his covenants all throughout Scripture—“I will be their God, and they will be my people” (see Jer. 31:33). Are you content with God himself being your inheritance? Or are you looking for an earthly reward from God?

Here’s another reason the Levites were scattered among the people. As the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible puts it, the priests were “sprinkled like salt” among the people to remind them of their holy calling, that the Lord was their refuge, and that the Lord dwelled among them and owned the land. Hence, these cities of refuge. Because the Lord dwelled in the midst of the people, they had to do everything they could not to defile the land, and murder was the dirtiest pollutant. Cities of refuge were cities to which an accidental manslayer could flee as a refuge from someone seeking vengeance. (Certainly the fact that cities of refuge were necessary in Israel speaks to our natural, sinful inclinations to seek revenge.) Murder as vengeance polluted the land and defiled God’s name. On the other hand, notice that premediated, intentional murder is given the death sentence. This goes all the way back to Genesis 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” It is a terrible thing to murder an image of God, and God’s glory and holiness is at stake when we don’t take it seriously. The people of Israel were called to glorify God in their holy conduct, and these cities of refuge and priests were to be a regular reminder of it.

One author writes that Christ is both the city of refuge as well as the great high priest for the sinner. He’s the city to whom we flee into when we realize that we’re deserving of death because of our sin (v. 12). He’s the high priest whose death frees us from a lifetime of exile and brings us home (v. 28). Have you run to Christ for refuge and eternal salvation?

And notice that this principle stands both for the Israelite and for the outsider (v. 15). How should this affect the way we evangelize unbelievers and welcome into our midst people who are different than us?